The standoff in the Constituent Assembly continued on Tuesday, a day after the Assembly saw members belonging to the UCPN (Maoist) bloc on the rampage following the CA chairman’s call to table a proposal to form a questionnaire committee. Constituent Assembly meeting was deferred within five minutes after protest. On Tuesday, they chanted slogans for around an hour and a half beginning 2:45pm, until Nembang putt off the meeting till Wednesday.
Leaders of the agitating bloc maintain that their protest is contingent upon the action of the ruling Nepali Congress and CPN-UML. “We were forced to take stern measures after the NC and UML along with the CA chairman adopted a unilateral approach. If the meeting was postponed after Baburam Bhattarai’s address, the incident would not have happened,” said Maoist CA member Haribol Gajurel. meanwhile, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has blamed Prime Minister Sushil Koirala of obstructing the consensus among parties on the sticky issues of new constitution.Organising a press meet in the Capital on Wednesday, Dahal also blamed NC leaders of derailing the consensus efforts among parties. “PM was hell bent on following the CA process when we asked to forward the issues that were settled. He was against forging consensus,” Dahal said.
